Many parents (or other types of parental representatives) are concerned about the people with whom their children communicate. When the children communicate over a network using communication devices including mobile phones and personal computers, parents may identify some of the their children's potential or actual communication participants as being unknown, untrustworthy, or otherwise unacceptable. In response, parents may restrict availability of the communication devices to their children to prevent their children from communicating with such people.
Various systems and methods are known that attempt to limit electronic communications for children. For example, one system describes a personal messaging proxy to manage and configure instant messaging and presence services. The proxy can be implemented as either a single software entity or a distributed software entity and contains a set of parentally-controlled subscription filter rules and content filter rules. When the child participates in instant messaging sessions with other users, the proxy can be configured to forward all messages or selected messages to a monitoring parent's device to periodically monitor the instant messaging behavior of the child.
Another system allows a parent to log onto a parental control server. The parent identifies himself or herself to the parental control server by providing identification information, such as a username and a password. The parent can then access a setting database that includes an allow/block list including a list of parentally controlled actions. The allow/block list includes an allow-list of actions allowed by the parent and a block-list of the actions blocked by the parent. Thus, the allow/block list includes customized parental controls.
Still another system requires a parent or guardian of a child to allow the child access to instant messaging devices. One or more authentication credentials are received from the parent or guardian to establish the age of the parent or guardian. The authentication can come from existing third part services, driver's license numbers, or that the parent or guardian is in possession of a valid credit card number. Alternatively, a child can log onto a system directly provided one of the age authentication means stated above are present.
Yet another system provides message filtering for allowing a supervisory user, such as a parent, to control a flow of messages to other users, such as a child. E-mail messages or instant messages from already-approved senders are allowed to pass directly to the child's account. Messages from unapproved senders are forwarded to the parent's account for either deletion or approval to forward to the child.